HANCEVILLE — After serving for months as Hanceville’s interim police chief, officer Jason Marlin is now able to remove the “interim” from his title. On Tuesday, the 50 year-old Hanceville resident was officially sworn in as chief of police while surrounded by family and colleagues at a small midday ceremony held at city hall.

Marlin joined the city’s police force in 2021 after retiring from a 20-year career with the Birmingham Police Department, all spent working out of the city’s UAB-area South Precinct. Marlin said on Monday that adapting to small-town life in Hanceville took some initial getting used to, but that he’s appreciative of the supportive Hanceville community and carries no regrets.

“It feels like home to me now. It really does,” Marlin told The Times. “It was an adjustment, at first, to a slower pace, but it was something that I was ready for. The people here are pro-police, and it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve made in a really long time. Everybody I’ve come into contact with in this community seems to be very supportive of law enforcement. On just about any given day, someone is bringing us food; showing up and showing support for the people in our department.”

Hanceville Mayor Jimmy Sawyer said Marlin has placed a priority on open communication since first being named as interim chief, a quality that endears him to city leaders as he transitions into the position on a permanent basis.

“Jason stepped up when we needed help, and he’s done a really good job,” said Sawyer. “The officers trust him; he’s got a good relationship with them, and a good relationship with everybody here. If I ask him about anything that is going on within the police department, I know that he will be up front and I know that I can trust him to tell me the truth. That’s something that I really value.”

Including Marlin, Hanceville’s police department currently staffs eight officers, a number that Sawyer and Marlin are hoping to bolster as the department seeks to approach previous staffing levels that have supported a police staff of 13. In the meantime, Marlin said he’s working with a qualified squad of community-minded police at Hanceville — a solid starting point, he said, as the city screens applicants to grow the department back to full staffing capacity.

“The guys we have here now, I’m really proud of them,” he said. “I don’t have to worry about the decisions that they’re making. It’s comforting to know that I can trust these guys to go out there to treat people with respect and that they’re going to do their job. We’ve got a good group. Now we just need to get a few more.”

Marlin succeeds former Hanceville police chief Josh Howell, who retired from the position in April of this year.